1stAngel Arts Magazine

Winners of Seafarer’s Life Contest on Fine Art America

1stAngel — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:27:08 +0000

I asked the members of Fine Art America for images that portrayed a Seafarer’s life. I had so many wonderful images that it was VERY difficult to choose the three that would grace our sidebar for the next week, but I did manage it…..just!

Min says – I am Min Wang, born and raised in China….I am now located in the Los Angeles Area. My Art career and training began when I was 10 yrs old with formal instructions and encouragement from my parents and my aunt who is also an artist. I have always been interested with art from photography, interior design as well as all forms and styles of painting.

Since now relocating to the USA, I found the urge for me to re-again start my painting with ambitions and hope to share my visions with other Art Lovers of the world. I have started a new collection, all on canvas, in sizes from the minatures (2′ x 2′) to the larger single, 2 frame, 3 frame and 4 frame paintings.

I received my formal BA with study concenration on oils, water, ink and pencil/charcoal sketching as well as Chinese Brush Art. I have entered and exhibited in numerous competitions, as well as invited exhibitions, and have been feature by news and media articles in Shenzhen, China for my accomplishments and acknowledgements of my paintings and other works I submitted. In order to expand my horizons and insights for my paintings, I have been fortunate to travel thru Europe, USA and other Asian countries to increase my visions and impressions of different settings and situations.

I have been Art Instructor/Teacher in China for over 15 yrs….with students from 6 yrs old and older….in public and private settings. My students have been awarded numerous awards over this time and I am thankful that I could contribute to their introduction and training to the Art World.

My paintings are also available on a rent or lease basis for company accounts, new home builders and interior decorators. Please feel free to contact me for additional information and rates for your requests.

Teysens Gallery is a family owned and operated business located in Mackinaw City, MI.. It’s speciality is a unique framing technique referred to as the ‘Wooden Gallery Process’ in which art work (brush as well as photography) is tastefully displayed w/o the aggravations of glass. The presentation is fully protected from the smears of touching. It’s washable and UV protected. Many home accent pieces are also found throughout the showroom and compliment the wall art. Open May – October.

Teysen’s Gallery
300 E. Central
Mackinaw City, MI. 49701
231-436-7519

Mark says – Some things just happen. I have been practicing at photographyfor about 25 years now and only in the last 3 have I been showing and selling some of them. It all started with a Boy Scout fund raising auction. I donated some of my prints and was amazed at how much they helped the scouts. This is not what I do for a living. With my wife’s loving nudges I do shows on weekends and have a web site graydenart.com. I do have one gallery that carries some of my prints that I have done and I look forward to having some of my photographs on your walls. Please feel free to ask a question or comment on any of my works. Everything here started as a photograph. Please visit graydenart.com and leave you comments.

Caption Contest 22

1stAngel — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:50:41 +0000

Every week I hold a Caption Contest that anyone can enter

You are shown a picture. Think of a good, catchy caption for it.

The one I feel makes me giggle the loudest, wins a mention on this site along with their website address so make sure you add yours!

Ready?

Winner will be announced next week

All images on this site have been gathered from Creative Commons resources. Any photographer who has images on this site, and who has changed their license, or, for some other reason, would like their picture removed, please contact me and your image will be removed without delay.

Best Friends by Shari Nees

1stAngel — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:42:44 +0000

Pick of the Day – Amy Fose

V P Holmes — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:09:44 +0000

I am a photographer by hobby. I enjoy being out in nature and capturing the beauty I see. I have very little formal training but am in the process of increasing my knowledge and ability. Thanks for looking at my pictures.

Imagined Lives: Mystery Portraits 1520-1640

1stAngel — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:49:13 +0000

IMAGINED LIVES: MYSTERY PORTRAITS 1520-1640
17 March 2010-October 2011
The National Trust’s Montacute House, near Yeovil, Somerset

A new National Portrait Gallery display of unseen paintings of 16th and 17th-century mystery figures opens at one of its regional partners, the National Trust’s Montacute House, on 17 March 2010. Over the last 450 years, the identities of the sitters featured in the portraits on display have been either lost or mistaken. This will be the first opportunity to see these portraits, which have either been recently restored or not exhibited for over half a century.

Inspired by the mystery that surrounds the unknown sitters, the Gallery has invited writers John Banville, Tracy Chevalier, Julian Fellowes, Sir Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Joanna Trollope and Minette Walters to contribute short imaginative stories on what their lives might have been like. These fantasy character sketches and fictional biographies accompany the portraits in the display and help bring the sitters to life.

New research undertaken by History of Art MA students at the University of Bristol, working with Dr Tatiana String – and supervised by the Gallery’s 16^th Century Curator Dr Tarnya Cooper – has meant that they can now be brought back into full view with a clearer understanding of their past.

The display features portraits of men and women whose identities are no longer known. They appear to depict courtiers, musicians, writers, soldiers and others who hoped to preserve their memory by sitting for a portrait. They were purchased by the National Portrait Gallery from 1858 to 1971. When the identity of these portraits was disproved or disputed, the paintings were often removed from display or lent to other collections. Recent conservation work and new research has meant that some portraits can now be re-identified.

The character sketches and imaginary biographies by the authors brilliantly provide new ways of looking at these mystery portraits. Their short fictional narratives respond to what can be seen in each portrait, picking up on details of the costume and pose in intriguing ways. For example, in a story entitled Rosy Tracy Chevalier has written about a portrait of a handsome young man with a flushed complexion as the object of homosexual desire.

The crime writer Minette Walters has written a poignant letter from the perspective of the wife of a man shown in a portrait, which brims with despair at her husband’s extravagance. The author and scriptwriter Julian Fellowes has created a subtle biography (written in the style of a traditional biographical entry in a dictionary) about a resourceful woman whose husband was executed in the reign of Henry VIII.

Sarah Singleton has written about the adventures of a spice merchant and amateur musician struggling to make his way in the world despite his illegitimate status. Joanna Trollope has written a touching tale about the offer of a marriage proposal in the form of a letter from the sitter’s intended bride.

In a complete change of tone, the science fiction writer Sir Terry Pratchett has written an amusing tale about an explorer who presented Elizabeth I with a skunk. John Banville has seen in the features of a man laying upon his death bed the face of an admired officer serving with Cromwell’s New Model Army.

Visitors to the display at the National Trust’s Montacute House will be able to explore the display through close-up encounters with the portraits, and explore Tudor and Jacobean fashion in clothing, hairstyle, pose and gendered ideals of beauty and propriety. In August, they will also have the opportunity to hear some of these authors read their stories in person close to the portraits which inspired them.

There will be family activities designed by the students and extra information available to unravel the visual clues contained within these enigmatic portraits, as visitors discover the contemporary social conventions that shaped the way these sitters where portrayed.

This is the second curatorial collaboration between MA students from the University of Bristol and the National Portrait Gallery after the success of the previous dislpay, On the Nature of Women in 2008. The event has provided them with valuable experience in conducting original research at the Gallery’s Heinz Archive & Library, and in all the processes of staging a Gallery display, which involves the writing of text and captions.

Imagined Lives: Mystery Portraits 1520-1640, which will run for two National Trust seasons, until 2012, is a collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery, the National Trust and the University of Bristol.

Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘I am delighted that the Gallery will once again be working with the National Trust and the University of Bristol, this time bringing together some fascinating, unseen portraits from the Gallery’s Collection and revealing their research into them. Visitors will also be able to read the inspired responses to the portraits of some of today’s most accomplished writers.’

Richard Higgs, Property Manager of Montacute House, says: ‘This exciting new exhibition will give visitors a unique way of looking at this fabulous collection of paintings. The fact that they are unknowns is intriguing in itself but I think the biographies created by the writers will really spark the imagination and get people thinking about the possible lives of the sitters.’

Dr Tatiana String, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of Bristol, says: ‘Our unique collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery and the National Trust has attracted students to our course from Japan, Chile, Cyprus, Australia and the United States, as well as some of the most talented students from across the UK. Their research for this exhibition has uncovered important new ways of interpreting these “unknown” portraits.’

PUBLICATION

A fully-illustrated National Portrait Gallery publication containing information on the portraits on display together with all the stories by John Banville, Tracy Chevalier, Julian Fellowes, Sir Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Joanna Trollope and Minette Walters is available in paperback from the National Trust’s Montacute House priced £6.99

Also available is a fully-illustrated National Portrait Gallery publication A Guide to Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, which focuses on 16^th and 17^th century portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, Montacute House, and other National Trust properties. Written by the Gallery’s 16^th Century Curator, Dr Tarnya Cooper, and with a foreword by Lady Antonia Fraser, the book is in paperback and priced £5.99.

Monthly Photo Tip – March 2010

Juergen Roth — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:13:00 +0000

I am always on the lookout of ways to minimize camera vibration during exposure that may result in low quality and blurry images. One of the widely available camera gadgets is the self-timer. I regularly use this feature when shooting in low light conditions or with long telephoto lenses that require long exposure times. I got so used to it that I almost always use it when I photograph still life. Even when using a tripod pressing the shutter release button may cause significant enough camera shaking to blur photographs. The one accessible solution that every camera provides is the camera self-timer. The self-timer starts counting after the release button is pressed all the way through. A ten second delay is most common and allows the camera to stabilize on your tripod (or other support gear) before the shutter is released and the photo is taken; thereby minimizing camera vibration and optimizing image quality and sharpness.

At Home

Juergen Roth — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:12:00 +0000

Last weekend New England was hit with record pouring rain. Although a big fan of heading out during rain storms to photograph I skipped it this time. Nature was still in transition from winter to spring providing mostly gray hues. Instead I made my way over to a local flower shop to see what they had for me. I found a few bundles of Gerber daisies that showed potential for floral photography. I was planning to shoot the flowers over black so I stopped in a local Staples to buy some black card boards. Back home I started out with some single flower arrangements and while capturing "Flower over Black" I happened to notice a little opening that would allow me to get close and focus straight into the Gerber. I instantly went into macro mode. I moved my tripod and camera into a couple of inches of the flower's reach and started composing. The aperture setting of f/5.6 and the 80mm macro lens setting provided me with the shallow depth of field I had in mind. I adjusted the polarizer filter for maximum elimination of reflections and to saturate the red and yellow hues in the floral image. Once satisfied I let the self-timer get to work while I was counting till 10. During post processing I applied minimal auto contrast adjustment and lastly sharpened the image.

Pick of the Day – Edward Sobuta

V P Holmes — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:57:52 +0000

Ed Sobuta is an IT professional that has a passion for photography. He specializes in nature, landscape, product and portraiture photography. He has a keen eye for finding unique subject angles and lighting.

Please visit my PBASE photo site to see my other work. These photos are also available in various sized prints.
Please email me if you have any questions.
My PBASE Site
The content (content being images and artists statement) of this gallery is copyright © (EDWARD A SOBUTA JR). All rights expressly reserved.